Sunday, 18 May 2014

During the
nineties of last century a new concept emerged in the agricultural economics
literature: rural renaissance. In a simplified way this new concept can be
defined as a specific phase in the economic development process of affluent
societies, in which the rural world gains higher relative importance. The rural
world now includes not only the traditional agricultural activity, but also many
of the economic activities usually located in the large urban communities. In
other words it means the migration of industries and services from large
centers to rural areas. And this movement is also accompanied by the
renaissance of agriculture itself, both in terms of new farmers and new technologies.

References to
renewed agricultural practices have recently been made in Portugal. More
specifically it has been said that a few subsectors within agriculture have
witnessed important rates of growth in production.

In order to test
the existence of such evolution, we looked at the main economic indicators for
agriculture in the twenty first century, namely the Output of Agricultural
Industry (OAI), the Gross Value Added (GVA), the Gross Fixed Capital Formation
(GFCF) and Agricultural Labor Input (ALI). Moreover we tried to identify the
subsectors where a notorious production growth could have taken place.

In Table 1 it is not possible to detect clear
tendencies of growth or contraction either for OAI or GVA. The fluctuations
observed must be due to weather randomness rather than any other factor. On the
contrary GFCF registers a fall of 2.3% during the period.

In Table 1 it
can also be seen that, contrary to output, total labor input, suffered a fall
of about 2.6% annually. Curiously, and has in Figure 2 shows, there is a
slowdown in the fall of labor input in the last three years of the period
(2011-2013), which has to be attributed to the light increase in non-salaried
labor in those years.

Can it be the
case that the increase in self employed labor denotes some renaissance in the Portuguese
agricultural sector? And if yes is it a reaction to the unemployment increase
in other sectors of the economy as a consequence of the policy measures of the
“Program of Economic and Financial Adjustment” imposed by the Troika?

The empirical
evidence above does not seem enough for a clear cut positive answer, even
because the level of total agricultural output did not show significant changes.
At most it can be said that the effects of the policy measures had a positive indirect
impact on the establishment of new farmers. And this new blood (both in terms
of entrepreneurs and technology) may be responsible for the growth dynamics felt
in some subsectors of production.

Table 2 shows
the performance of some of the most important subsectors of crop production, as
well as the three classic subsectors of animal production.

Table 2 – EVOLUTION
OF AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT IN SELECTED SUBSECTORS,

Portugal,
2000-2013

Year

Crop Output

Animal Products

Total

Fresh Vegetables

Fresh Fruits (except citrus, subtropical, grapes and
olives)

Wine

Olives

Olive Oil

Total

Meat

Milk

Eggs

106
Euro (constant prices of 2006)

2000

3,192.3

502.7

446.5

401.3

136.5

5.2

2,455.8

1,603.9

741.5

91.0

2001

3,243.1

505.5

433.1

449.2

93.2

3.5

2,442.1

1,607.5

717.8

96.6

2002

3,442.0

567.0

513.5

357.5

106.2

3.1

2,523.0

1,652.9

752.4

97.5

2003

3,267.8

579.7

460.2

356.5

108.9

2.8

2,424.5

1,600.3

706.8

99.0

2004

3,478.7

581.7

479.5

384.0

132.7

5.2

2,645.9

1,799.0

728.0

102.9

2005

3,014.6

539.6

474.7

385.7

114.1

4.5

2,594.9

1,736.7

750.9

90.5

2006

3,317.2

534.5

506.3

398.5

147.8

3.9

2,417.7

1,582.4

727.0

91.5

2007

3,274.4

552.9

454.0

383.6

227.4

6.4

2,464.0

1,637.1

717.3

91.9

2008

3,348.1

563.2

492.3

372.7

254.4

7.0

2,517.9

1,676.1

731.8

93.3

2009

3,425.0

585.1

573.8

365.8

336.0

13.9

2,442.0

1,607.2

725.7

92.4

2010

3,450.3

600.5

526.5

419.4

376.4

15.3

2,398.6

1,572.0

708.1

98.8

2011P

3,421.6

597.3

569.4

345.6

419.9

18.8

2,355.2

1,538.9

704.9

92.9

2012P

3,435.6

607.5

512.5

372.1

380.3

14.9

2,332.4

1,516.5

710.5

90.6

2013f

3,583.7

592.5

580.9

376.2

462.8

17.9

2,242.0

1,444.1

682.1

95.4

Source:
INE

; P – provisional data; f - forecast

The table shows that total crop production growth is almost entirely
matched by the decrease in animal products, thus confirming the above mentioned
stagnation of total agricultural output. But it is also evident that vegetables,
fresh fruits and olive trees production have sizable increments (from1.3% annually
for vegetables to 9.9% for olive oil).

These results definitely helped the good performance of the trade
balance in recent years. It was in fact in the crop subsectors of Table 2 that
exports grew more significantly. Figures in Table 3 cannot be compared with the
above data because the lack of direct information on exports in national and
EUROSTAT Statistics forced us to use FAO figures. Besides being expressed in US
dollars, product typology does not coincide.

Table 3 – EVOLUTION
OF EXPORTS OF SELECTED AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS,

Portugal
2000-2011

Year

Wine

Olive Oil

Preserved vegetables

Frozen vegetables

1000 US dollars

2000

468,958

58,326

13,145

13,188

2001

435,559

50,101

16,548

15,335

2002

480,770

46,478

18,027

19,157

2003

602,619

55,582

X

20,516

2004

660,693

94,474

24,361

26,919

2005

653,608

117,959

24,411

30,026

2006

665,775

144,378

X

41,044

2007

818,494

151,790

35,831

53,422

2008

851,038

191,323

55,578

70,473

2009

760,776

168,612

55,187

57,269

2010

806,723

211,555

51,446

43,955

2011

907,464

271,056

57,341

55,571

Source: FAO

The information in the table entirely confirms what was said. To point
out only the fact that the value of olive oil exports in 2011 allowed for a first
positive trade balance.

We can then conclude that the policy measures in the “Program of
Economic and Financial Adjustment” did not directly affect the Portuguese
agricultural sector. On the contrary the dynamic behavior of some subsectors of
crop production definitely fitted one of the objectives of such program: the improvement of the Portuguese trade
balance.

This article is dedicated to the Doctor Osemu Okpamen. I have been married with my wife for 5 years and recently she broke up with me and it hurt me deeply when she told me to leave her alone and that she does not love me anymore when i was always faithful and honest to her. I tried all the ways to get her back buying her what she wants like i always did and she still left me heart broken and she even has a new boyfriend which destroyed me even more until a friend of mine from high school directed me to this genuine spell Doctor called Osemu Okpamen. This man changed my life completely. I followed everything he told me to do and my wife came back begging for me back. I was stunned everything happened exactly like he told me. I had faith in everything he told me and everything was true. Also he was there every moment until i got my happiness back and he also provides spells that cures any diseases & sickness. You could contact him via email at { Doctorokpamenspelltemple@yahoo.com } or visit his website http://www.doctorokpamenspells.com or reach him on +1 (914)-517-3229. He will help you in anything you need and quick to answer once you contact him.